Laura Bruno Lilly

The road ends, but the journey continues...

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Creative Confluence

July 15, 2014 /

Confluence.

I love how that word rolls about in the mouth; how it feels like its verbal definition.

Confluence.

Defined as a coming or flowing together, meeting or gathering at one point.

Most often used in reference to the joining of different rivers forming a larger waterway, it offers up a powerful image describing the perpetual movement of life.  Regardless of point of origin, the joining up of these liquid forces produces newborn paths, vision and vitality.

Confluence of the Mississippi River & Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois

The confluence of the Mississippi River & Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. (© Nathan Benn/Ottochrome/Corbis)


Confluence itself is sort of ‘messy.’  Look at the bottom tip of Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers come together.  During our first year on-the-road between-homes, we often traveled the bridges over these two rivers around Cairo, IL. Continue reading

Bengal Tiger Inspiration

July 9, 2014 /

Bengal Tiger Nashville Zoo

Bengal Tiger Nashville Zoo, Amiee Stubbs Photography 2012


That gaze is arresting; so peaceful yet focused and in the moment.  What a glorious creation; breathed forth into existence by the imagination of my Lord.
Reaching out to me from the image; that gaze.  The earthy balance of body, pattern and color palette; eye – candy ‘au naturale.’  It fills me.
The glow of the glimmering candles cast orange upon my workspace.  Against a grey backdrop day, I am surrounded by supportive stuff; bits of inspiration, all within view of that gaze.

Bacterial Necrosis

June 30, 2014 /

 from- Swimming with Swans: vignettes of our three year journey between homes
November 2011 (Fountain Hills, AZ)

Saguaro Cactus Fountain Hills, AZDuring my daily walks along local paths in town and in the surrounding desert area, I’ve noticed Saguaro Cacti with large dark brown “bite” patches along their base up to and including places way high above my head.  At first I thought perhaps they were indeed, bites from local fauna that somehow didn’t get hurt eating the spiky spines along with the juicy flesh.  Think: deer bites on Aspen tree trunks.  But it didn’t seem to fit with the height limit of most animals.  So, I got to thinking maybe it was some sort of naturally occurring disease that helps to maintain eco-balance such as the Pine Beetles in the Colorado forests.
I did a bit of Google research and discovered Continue reading

The Rusty Quilter

June 22, 2014 /

detail of rows 1 & 2 of my quilt WIP

Detail of rows 1 & 2 of my quilt WIP


“Hello, my name is Laura and I am a rusty quilter who’s picking up the needle again.”
Geesh, that sounds kind of illegal.  No matter, quilting is and has been a very important part of my life since well, forever.  Put another way, when the country was re-discovering quilt-art in the 1960’s and 70’s, I was among those who tried my hand at it…and kept my hand in it ever afterwards.
Basic to those early projects was a deep desire to stay true to my own set of ‘quilt values.’  Specifically: recycling used clothing and jeans into quilts and wearables, both utilitarian and artistic.  One of my first quilt-based projects used old jeans pockets as squares to make a lounge pillow for my younger brother.
Yes, the times they were a-changin’.*  Continue reading

You Are My Only One (these 36 years) And I Still Believe In We

June 17, 2014 /

James Taylor with attitude

My hubby Terry’s twin (?)


Those baby blues.  That attitude.
My future husband, my lover, my BE-ONE…and oh yes, he looks just like James Taylor.
What’s not to like?
Most of our family and friends know the story of how we met.  Truncated version: Terry as best friend of my then fiancé convinces said fiancé to dump me and the rest is history.  While it certainly was God’s plan for us to be married, it might not have been exactly His way of getting us together.
Over these past years we have celebrated June 17th in various ways.  Our first anniversary we did the ‘eat the frozen wedding cake top’ thing in our little square cinder block married student housing house.  Living on love in the midst of typical newlywed poverty those first years proved to produce a firm foundation to our new union; along with three children!
Our tenth anniversary we threw a huge backyard party celebrating the fact that we had made it together that long.  Sadly, many we knew who married the same year as we did, were no longer together.  This was also the year in which we followed the dream and took a leap of faith in starting our own business. Continue reading

The Dance of the Didgeridoo

June 11, 2014 /


Traditional Eucalyptus Didgeridoo (Ilario Vannucchi)

From: Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott*

Quote symbolThe voice of the didgeridoo was a call from far away, from centuries back.  If you pressed your ear to the ground, Mattie thought, this was the tone the earth would make.  The music resonated like an ancient god, or what desert winds must have sounded like to the first ears on earth.  She closed her eyes again.  She felt doomed, and lumpy, fat and old.  She tried to recall the women from church, their triumphant wideness, centered and vigorous, and this helped.  Ella clung to her like a baby Koala.  Mattie nuzzled her, snorfled her neck.  The didgeridoo sounded like an enormous animal panting at the end of its life.  Mattie looked up and found Daniel standing before her, lifting her daughter into his arms.  He held her in front of his chest, his long hands knitted together effortlessly to make a seat in which round, rosy Ella perched, somewhat worried but curious.
‘Want to dance?’ he asked her. ‘I’m probably the only person you know who can dance to the didgeridoo.’  dancer dadElla thought this over, tugging on her chin like an alchemist.
Mattie opened her fingers slowly to she could peek in at the little rubber shoe, as if examining a poker hand.  Harry and Al were talking, and Daniel still held Ella in his arms, turning in slow circles.  Mattie watched, listened, breathed in deep and slow: if the sound of the didgeridoo was a color, it would be rich and earthy, plant purple, like eggplant with light behind it.

*really didn’t like the book, but this quote was worth the read.

Fun with Sourdough

May 30, 2014 /

I love to cook and bake.  Since I have featured my homemade sourdough breads in two previous articles (click on recipe name for article or here & here), I thought it appropriate to share my original recipes.  Also included is a muffin/quick bread recipe that I adjusted to help use up excess starter.  (Which is great with a cuppa joe!)

The following recipes assume one has sourdough starter on hand (Mother).  If not, there are numerous ways of obtaining some, including starting one’s own via bread cookbook recipes.  However, sourdough starter is kind-of the ‘zucchini’ of the baking world.  When one begins baking with homemade starter, it usually overtakes the kitchen!  Hence the infamous ‘Friendship’ breads make their rounds among neighbors periodically with an accompanying ziplock baggie containing 1 – 2 cups of starter. 

Are you ready to have some fun? Continue reading

Celebrations & Inspirations

May 16, 2014 /

Note: In keeping with the theme of this previously written Swimming with Swans vignette (2012), we celebrate in spirit with our daughter Hava as she receives her J.D. degree this weekend (2014).

Celebrations and Inspirations

from-Swimming with Swans: vignettes of our three journey between homes
May 2012 (Westminster, CO)

In honor of this time of year: a time of graduations, weddings and new beginnings.  It is a time of celebrations and inspirations.

  • Bobby is graduating College with a BFA in Studio Art this weekend.
  • Our daughter Michelle is getting married in September.
  • Our son Joe is in a few new bands and learning to balance work, play and school as a bachelor guy.
  • My husband and I are faithfully walking the life-path before us regardless of its many mysteries.
  • A colleague and friend Bill, has survived two years of intense cancer treatment and is entering into a new cancer-free life.

And there’s more, oh so much more to be thankful for and to celebrate… Continue reading

Peace Post – Passion Scars

May 9, 2014 /

Peace, love and happiness don’t just happen.Passion Scars by Peter Steele

These qualities arise from a life of intent, purpose and passion.
Passion leaves scars.  Scars are not bad.  Scars are proof.

Imagine the scars of love on the risen Christ while walking the road beside Thomas.

“Reach here your finger, and see My hands; reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.”*

Proof that it is He.
Passion leaves a legacy.
Consider the statues of Easter Island.  horses on Easter IslandLong thought to be created using slave labor, researchers now believe the Moai were fashioned as part of a community ‘Passion Project.’  Many generations hauling and carving stone, raising the giant heads all to honor those who had gone on before them.  Passion to make those they loved ‘known’ beyond their short time on earth.
Peace, love and happiness don’t just happen.
Passion is not without its costs. 
Passion leaves scars.  Scars are not bad.  Scars are proof.
*John 20:27

Credits: Photographer Peter Steele’s latest body of work, Passion Scars Peace, Love and Happiness documents the carving in aspen trees from Steamboat Springs to Telluride, Colorado. Steele has identified four groups of people who carve in the aspen trees: sheep herders, elk hunters, the casual car camper, and homesteaders.Steele’s image of the oldest carving in the collection, dated 1922, was taken in an old growth aspen grove outside Telluride, CO. While Steele does not condone the act of aspen graffiti, and does not carve in trees, he enjoys searching and documenting these sacred messages that people have passionately expressed on the smooth canvas of the bark of the aspen tree. Peter Steele’s collection consists of 2000 tattooed aspen photographs recorded while hiking hundreds of miles of trails throughout Colorado.

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